India reports 2,430 new COVID-19 cases

New Delhi: With 2,430 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,46,26,427, while the active cases have increased to 26,618, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Saturday.

The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 5,28,874 with 17 fatalities, which includes 9 deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am showed. The active cases comprises 0.06 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.76 per cent, the health ministry said. An increase of 35 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.01 per cent. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.07 per cent, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,40,70,935, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent. According to the ministry, 219.27 crore doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4, three crore on June 23 last year and four crore on January 25 this year. The eight new fatalities reported in the last 24 hours include four from Maharashtra and one each from Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.